Optical Properties of Nanocrystalline Ag Doped Silica Inverse Opals

Abstract

Nanocrystalline Ag doped silica inverse opals were prepared by a sol-gel chemistry method via templating of polystyrene colloidal crystals. The ordered structures of colloidal crystal templates and inverse opals are characterized by scanning electron microscopy. Ag nanocrystals size is estimated as 20~30nm by Scherrer Formula from X-ray diffraction. The color and the stop band of the inverse opals are characterized by transmission spectrum. And five emission peaks of the nanocrystalline silver clusters are observed from fluorescence spectrum.

Sandwich Approach toward Inverse Opals with Linear and Nonlinear Optical Functionalities

“…3D lithographic techniques provide high quality structures but are expensive and inaccessible to most researchers. , A more economical method to fabricate 3D ordered macroporous materials is by self-assembling colloids, resulting in so-called opals . A templating strategy is often used to introduce additional functionality inside the porous structure, resulting in inverse opals. ,,, Various fabrication methods for organic and inorganic inverse opals that display fluorescence, − nonlinear optics, − magneto-optics, − plasmonics, , or upconversion, − can be found in literature. Mostly, the template is first infiltrated with a solution, a sol–gel, or a melt and then removed by chemical etching or decomposition at high temperature.…”